Research experience prior to a PhD
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21 Aug 2019, 23:51
My question might sound silly but it is one that has been bothering me for a while. The whole point of doing a Ph.D. (which includes the coursework) is to learn how to do research independently. How are you expected to have research experience before a Ph.D. then? I started working as an RA at one of the Indian Institutes of Management (the top b-school in India) around eight months back and although I have learned one or two statistical tools to do some quant analysis and some qualitative research methodology, this knowledge is not enough to write a research paper by myself. I read on several forums that having a few publications before applying for a Ph.D. is quite good. I am trying hard to write a paper and plan to apply this fall for Ph.D., however, I don't think I would get published before the Ph.D. deadlines which means that I will not be able to mention about my papers in the applications as they would get published most probably after the deadlines.
So, my question is basically how much importance do Adcoms give to research experience such as the one I have at IIM (like doing quant analysis using statistical tools, qualitative analysis etc) versus writing your own paper? I would love to have a publication before submitting my applications but that seems unlikely right now.
BTW, I am planning to apply for Ph.D. in OB HR in US B-schools.